The present invention is generally directed to the processing of food. A shrimp is covered with a shell and contains an inedible sand vein near its back. This vein must be removed before a shrimp is canned, frozen or cooked. It further is generally desirable to remove the shrimp meat from the shell, although occasionally it may be desirable to leave the meat in the shell.
Hand removal of veins and hand shelling is tedious and inefficient and consequently is most undesirable when large numbers of shrimp must be handled. Early methods and machines developed for removing the veins from the shrimp and separating the meat and shells have not been entirely successful in producing a large yield of clean meat, or else have required a great amount of hand work. More specifically, the early machines did not completely remove the vein or caused too much meat to be removed adjacent the vein while allowing much of the meat to be left clinging to the shell.
In order to overcome the deficiencies of the aforementioned early machines, shrimp processing machines of the type fully described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,850,761 and 3,159,871 were developed. These machines included a plurality of processing stations and a carrier for transferring the shrimp through the processing stations. One station was arranged to cut the shrimp lengthwise along its back to expose the sand vein, another station removed the sand vein of the shrimp, and still another station automatically separated the shrimp meat from the shell. While the machines described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,850,761 and 3,159,871 provided a more than adequate solution to existing problems in such machines at that time, further refinements were left to be made. For example, there are types of processing such as, Western or Cowboy split wherein it is necessary to cut entirely through the shrimp lengthwise prior to the preparation thereof for consumption. Prior art machines did not provide for this form of lengthwise cutting of the shrimp. The machines referred to above merely cut part way through the shrimp to a sufficient depth so as to remove the sand vein therefrom but not entirely through the shrimp.
It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide a new and improved shrimp processing machine.
It is a more specific object of the present invention to provide a shrimp processing machine which includes a cutting station which is arranged to cut the shrimp lengthwise entirely therethrough.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a shrimp processing machine which includes a plurality of processing stations including a cutting station having a rotary blade for cutting the shrimp and a means for transferring the shrimp seriatim from one processing station to another which allows the rotary blade to cut the shrimp lengthwise and entirely therethrough.